Dr. Elizabeth Smoots of Myrtle Beach Online reports that in most cases of food poisoning, the culprit is contamination from tiny bacteria, viruses or parasites that live in our environment. According to a primer published by the American Medical Association, the medical profession and the public have grown complacent about infectious organisms that cause this preventable condition. The result is that 76 million people get sick, 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from foodborne illnesses in our country every year.


Signs of infection
The most frequent signs of foodborne illness are diarrhea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, headaches, muscles pains and fever.
Symptoms usually start 12 to 72 hours after eating contaminated food, but I’ve found that some can occur 30 minutes to four weeks later.
Most people recover within four to seven days without antibiotics.